Zilan Hasret Yıldız is a daf player. She grew up in a musician family, her father is a dengbej, her brother is a baglama player.  After taking daf courses from Sami Hosseini, she became a member of the Ahura Rhythm Community. We listened to her journey with daf and music.

PERİ BAYAV

Izmir- Daf is a Middle Eastern frame drum musical instrument. It is one of the oldest musical instruments of Mesopotamia. Although it has been played mostly in Iran, the number of people being interested in this instrument in Turkey is increasing. Zilan Hasret Yıldız is one of these people. I first heard her name from my niece. I was quite excited to meet this woman, who sings songs in many languages while playing her daf with enthusiasm and joy.

She welcomed me in their workshop and we began to talk about her journey with daf and music. When she talks about her musical instrument, she talks about it as if it is one part of her body. Zilan makes music with musical groups called Ahura Rhythm Community, Neva Pangea, and Salut de Smyrne. She also plays bendir, tombak, djembe and darbuka. She sings songs in many languages such as Greek, Ladino, Turkish, Kurdish (Kurmanci, Zazaki, Sorani, Hawrami), Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Albanian, Macedonian and Persian languages. Let’s listen to her story from herself.

Zilan was born in 1996 into a family from the Horasan district of Erzurum province. She went to elementary, secondary, and high school in Istanbul, where she was born. Then, she moved to Izmir to study math at Dokuz Eylül University. Her interest in music increased while she was studying math. Then, she decided to study music at Ege University. After studying math for five years, she began to study music at Ege University.

Her father is a dengbej

Zilan was born into a musician family. Her father Kısmet Yıldız is a well-known dengbej (Kurdish storyteller). Her brother Şeref Yıldız is a professional baglama player.

“My father raised us with music culture. He has served Kurdish music and culture for years. When we were children, listening to Kurdish music and dengbejan (plural of dengbej) was boring for us. We always listened to the news in Kurdish and Kurdish music at home. We spoke Kurdish at home, Turkish outside. But now, when I listen to dengbejan, I understand feelings better. I wasn’t interested in music until studying maths at university. I liked learning math but then I realized that I feel happy while listening to music. I wanted to spend my life with music. That’s why I left studying math and began to study music.”

Her life began to shape with music

Then, she met with Sami Hosseini, a daf player, and began to take courses from him. After a while, she became a member of the Ahura Rhythm Community. At that time, music was an activity for her to feel better. After working with the Ahura Rhythm Community for a while, her life began to shape with music. “For me, music is the flow of water. When I make music, I feel like I am the flow of water having no obstacle. I am actually not a lucky person but music gives me a chance. I took my first step into music by being a member of the Ahura.”

She began to make music in different languages

Before being a member of the Ahura Rhythm Community, Zilan just made Kurdish music and sang only Kurdish songs. After being a member of the Ahura, she began to make music and sing songs in different languages. And she began to play different musical instruments.

They formed a musical group called Neva Pangea 

In 2019, Zilan met with Cenk Arslanbuğa and they decided to make music together. They formed Neva Pangea musical group with Mahzun Erdoğan. “As a musical group, we want to make music in different languages,” Zilan told us.

After meeting with Murat Küçükarslan and Serap Çiğdem Şahin, Zilan took part in their musical group called, “Salut de Smyrne”. “Each song has a story. When you sing songs in different languages, you feel the story of songs. I usually learn the story of songs before singing them. I feel everything different with music.”